


Fortitude

by Babykitsune9



Category: Bleach, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Death, Depression, Doctor Kurosaki Ichigo, F/M, Female Kurosaki Ichigo, Ichigo is twenty six, Protective Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Slow Burn, Worried Yagi Toshinori | All Might, former Soul Reaper Ichigo, oblivious idiots eventually turn lovers, toshinori didn't get hurt, toshinori is thirty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:40:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28062573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: He didn't think he'd ever meet someone who would make him tremble like she did. But then he never thought that a civilian woman, a doctor no less, would ever punch him in the face either.Still...he couldn't help but feel fascinated by her.After all, how strong could the woman be to put All Might on his ass in such a public manner?
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo & Yagi Toshinori | All Might
Kudos: 60





	1. Chapter 1

It had to be the weirdest- and most _frightening_ \- encounter he'd ever had in the line of duty as of yet.

He'd been trying to take down several villains whom had robbed a bank and were tearing through the streets of Musutafu shooting their guns from their get away vehicle.

He'd already seen several civilians fall and even die because of their reckless and careless behavior. And to be perfectly honest, he was so pissed that it was a wonder he could actually see straight right then.

He'd been chasing them for the better part of at least fifteen minutes now. And despite the fact that he was catching up to them- he likely wouldn't be able to stop them easily without having to create an mini earthquake or something just to bring their vehicle to a halt.

However he was hesitant to even resort to such measures given the fact that they were currently passing through one of the poorer- and more crime riddled area's- of the city. There was a lot of buildings, homes, businesses ect.. that could come crashing down if he wasn't careful.

And to be frank, he worried about what would happen to the people out and about on the streets or even at home and work, if he did such a thing.

After all, just because other Pro Heroes found collateral damage acceptable...didn't mean that _he_ did.

Resigning himself to the possibility of chasing them into another part of town, he barely noticed when the driver lost control and sent the vehicle plowing right into what looked like a recently opened clinic.

The whole damned building practically caved in over the car and he skidded to a halt from the sheer shock of how easily that clinic had folded like a goddamn house of cards.

 _Was that supposed to happen?_ He wondered before mentally shaking himself and then quickly crossed the little bit of distance to the rubble and began to shift through it for any people that might have been buried when the stupid clinic caved in.

He found the villains, and weirdly enough they were uninjured with the exception of some scrapes, bruises, and one broken wrist. Of course once he had them dug out and cuffed, he then began the somewhat daunting task of digging out anyone else who may have been buried under the rubble.

He found three civilians alive and fairly unharmed.

A young woman who had on a white doctor's coat. And two of her patients. However as much as he was relieved to find them all well. There were at least three other people, who _died_ from various injuries in the collapse.

One passed on from a heart attack. He was elderly, and went quickly enough to pass on before he was found. One was a young lady in her late teens. She had been skewered in the chest by a large piece of glass. And the other from severe head trauma.

Though it was just a little bit difficult to tell if the head trauma had been caused in the clinic's collapse. Or maybe a gunshot wound? Either way, the young woman that was the clinic's doctor was beside herself.

Her wide neon blue eyes traveling from the mound of rubble that had once been her work place. To her patients- both the living _and_ the dead.

And at first she said nothing. She just let out a low hiccupping sound that made him internally cringe because he was fairly certain that she was on the verge of crying.

Which was understandable. After all, this was sort of his fault. Even if he hadn't been the person driving the vehicle. So yes, he bore some _responsibility_ here. Especially for not catching the villains earlier and preventing this.

However instead of crying like he expected her to do, she got up off of the ground and walked over to the villains and asked them if they were the ones who had caused her clinic to cave in.

He watched her, purely out of curiosity, but was still startled when after receiving an answer from them- she decided to beat the hell out of them.

He wouldn't lie and say that he didn't freeze up from the shock. Because he did.

He'd seen civilians pissed about their circumstances before.

But this- this was just so damned _stupefying_ to him that he was afraid to move lest he bring her attention back to him. Especially since the woman was doing some real damage to the villains!

Their scrapes and bruises and one broken wrist morphed into black eyes, missing teeth, broken noses, and several _other_ broken bones- because apparently the one broken wrist and everything else simply wasn't punishment enough.

Finally just as he was about to go and pull her off of them before she could do anymore damage to them, she stopped beating them and then started screaming at them. Which was another shock, because she was scolding the now terrified villains as if they were children.

And what was even more shocking was they were _all_ cowering before her in fear. But he supposed that after a vicious beating like she'd given them, cowering in fear would be a natural response.

She went on screaming at them for the better part of twenty minutes. Which was _impressive_ to him since he'd expected her to pretty much peter out much sooner. But what was even more impressive to him was the fact that her voice reached decimals that rivaled his own booming voice whenever he shouted or screamed.

 _How does she reach those pitches without her voice cracking?_ He wondered as she finally stopped screaming at the villains and then suddenly turned on him.

 _"And you-"_ There was such venom in her tone as she pegged him with those pretty eyes of hers that he visibly stiffened, his eyes going wide in alarm as she practically stormed over to him and reached up and grabbed him by the front of his hero costume and yanked him down so that they were eye to eye. "How dare you do this to me _again_!"

He didn't take his eyes off of her even as her words registered in his mind. He didn't dare since the petite woman obviously had a mean streak in her and he was worried about her attempting to beat the snot out of him too.

After all, he was significantly _stronger_ than the villains were. And his body was covered in steel like thick chords of muscle that would hurt her delicate bones- possibly irreparably- if she tried.

However before he could even open his mouth to warn her of this fact...she had him laid out on his ass at her feet when her small fist connected with his face and sent him sprawling.

His face throbbed painfully. Which was the only real thing that seemed to register in his bewildered mind as he absently held the already bruising skin and looked at her with his eyes so impossibly wide and shocked that it was a wonder that they didn't fall right out of his sockets.

On another note though, he was vaguely aware of hos freaked out the villains and the woman's two living patients seemed at seeing the woman put him on his ass in such a way.

After all, he was the number one ranking hero in all Japan, maybe even the world. He was unstoppable. And for all intents and purposes before the public- _infallible_ too.

So this incident must have really rattled them just as much as it did him.

After all, what sort of Pro Hero was laid out on his ass by a mere civilian?

* * *

She couldn't recall a time when she'd been quite this pissed. And that was really saying a lot considering her former job as a Soul Reaper and _all_ of the trouble that it had brought her over the years.

Still...she was so pissed at the moment that it was a wonder that smoke didn't start coming out of her ears. It had been so overwhelming that she had _punched_ the hero before she could even stop herself.

Usually, she had much better control of herself.

But since this was the _fourth_ fucking time that her clinic had been destroyed- as well as the umpteenth time she'd lost patients due to the recklessness and carelessness of some caped, heroic _yahoo_ whom couldn't be bothered to steer clear of civilians- she simply couldn't hold herself back anymore.

She _needed_ to unleash her wrath on someone.

It was just utterly tragic that it had to be hero boy. He seemed like he was a nice guy. But then a lot of heroes were fairly nice. They were just...obliviously stupid sometimes. That's all.

He was staring at her as if she were the worst person in the world. Which was a little bit funny to her. Especially since she knew some of the worst people in the world. She could even name them all quite easily.

But she doubted that he'd know any of them if she did, much less understand _why_ exactly they were the worst people in the world. He would have had front row seats to the death and devastation like she had to truly understand anything.

But she digressed.

"You unbelievable moron! Do you have any idea what you've done to me? _Again_!" She shrieked at him. His blue eyes got even wider and she might be a little bit mistaken, but she could have swore that she saw fear flash through them. Just for a second before he carefully shoved it aside. "Do you think it's easy to be new to this city and lose not _just_ my home but my clinic- my fucking workplace- multiple times within the last six months?!"

He opened his mouth, but couldn't seem to get anything out aside from a weird squeaking sound.

"I've seen a lot of stupid shit from heroes, but this- this is absolutely inexcusable! Do you think it's easy to rebuild over and over again? _Do you think it's cheap?_ I have to import most of my stuff straight from the U.S. just to get decent equipment!" She screamed at him.

His mouth kept working but there still wasn't any sound coming out.

"Do you think it's easy to get insurance for my clinic in case a fucking hero destroys it? In this part of the city I'm lucky to be able to go out to get groceries without being mugged! And on top of it all- you helped those _jackwang_ idiots kill some of my patients! Do you think it's _easy_ to offer a nice, safe place for people to come in and get their injuries treated when some idiot in a cape is on the loose?"

Finally the startled man managed to squeak out, "I-I'm sorry."

"You're damn right your sorry!" She screamed one last time before the angry expression on her face slowly slipped away and left her with a sad, resigned look as she then said- this time in a more civil tone. "Just...take the baddies and leave."

There was something about her resigned expression that tugged at his heartstrings. And despite her previous hostility, she was just a civilian. A distressed civilian with a wicked right hook, and one hell of a nasty temper. But still a civilian nevertheless.

"I-I'll pay for the damage's miss."

She looked at him oddly, but didn't say anything else. Instead she simply wandered away and went to sit down over by the rubble and just stared at it until the police finally arrived, and after handing the villains over to them, he decided to leave after casting one last look her way.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't even know where I'm going with this one. All I can think is- please let it make sense...

To make his humiliation even worse at the woman's hands, someone somewhere had managed to film him being punched in the face and screamed at by her. And then leaked it to the press. All of whom had shared the video with the whole world within _days_ of the actual incident.

Which was just... _low_ of them since it meant that his friends and co-workers kept ribbing him about it.

But as much as he wanted to be upset about it, he knew that people would see the fact that All Might had been laid out on his ass by a petite, beautiful, wisp of a woman- as big news.

And he wasn't wrong either.

Seeing the footage of the woman putting him on his ass with one blow to the face raised a _lot_ of questions from his adoring fans. Questions like; was All Might truly as infallible as he seemed? Or his personal favorite, Was the woman stronger than All Might was?

 _Physically?_ And he felt that could honestly say this after being hit by her once- she was probably _dangerously_ close to being just as strong as him. Which was incredible in and of itself.

After all, he'd gone through almost ten years of training with the both of his masters. And the two of them had put him through absolute _hell_.

So that begged the question; if he'd been through absolute hell... Then what had forged the woman's own strength? Since everyone had seemed to be just as curious as he was, he'd waited for someone to identify the doctor. And then once he'd had a name to go with her face- he'd run with it.

Almost literally.

And this is what he'd learned about her.

Her name was Ichigo Kurosaki. She'd left her hometown, which was a place in Japan eerily similar to the prison Tartarus. But not. From what he gathered it was a lot like where David Shields lived. It was meant to keep bad people with abilities _out_ since a vast majority of the inhabitants had no abilities or quirks whatsoever.

However Miss Kurosaki had left her home after a series of incidents where some really bad people had managed to get in, and couldn't get back out again. Leaving the residents of Karakura Town nearly defenseless against them.

 _Nearly_ being the operative word here.

Apparently Miss Kurosaki had worked side by side with a select few military personnel to bring those bad people to heel. From what he could see of what wasn't blacked out on her personal files, she'd done a damned good job too for a civilian.

However it wasn't the fact that she had been an untried or untrained civilian that staggered him as he continued to read. It was the fact that she had been a _child_ younger than those that he now taught at U.A.

Several years younger in fact. Most of the kids he trained were between sixteen and eighteen.

Miss Kurosaki had been between twelve and sixteen. Far too _young_ to be caught up in such dangerous things. When other children had been protected- she had been fighting for her life. When other kids had been playing outside or making friends or even going to school. She had been lying in hospital beds trying her damnedest not to _die_ from various injuries.

When other kids parents shielded them from conflict- her father had been trying to save as many lives as he could and had tended to overlook her unless she was right in front of him.

He had died during one of the conflicts that she, and the military personnel had been in. Which had left her an orphan along with her two precious younger siblings.

Both of whom had been injured, but had survived.

When Miss Kurosaki had left her hometown, she had let her two sisters stay with someone that she knew would care for them. He didn't know if they still talked or saw each other. But he could imagine how difficult it had been for her to leave them behind regardless.

After that, she had signed on to join the military group that she'd fought along side. He couldn't exactly say that he blamed her any. She had forged bonds of friendship and loyalty with them. She had also probably felt lost and without a purpose. So going with them had seemed to be the best choice that she could make at the time.

She'd been with them up until she had turned twenty and she'd completed several high risk jobs, missions, and even participated in a few wars (much like the war in Iraq) and even taken part in some relief efforts.

Which he could plainly see from a few pictures in her file as well as a small video attachment showing her teaching some young kids how to defend themselves.

She was quite good at teaching too, from what he could see. She was very patient with the kids and praised them for their hard work. She played games with them. Gave up her food rations for them and their starving families.

He could even see a few pictures of her dragging various large animals into the villages that she was stationed in, at the time- so that the impoverished people would _have_ enough food for everyone.

There was a peculiar warmth in the vicinity of his heart as he eyed the pictures where the meat had been cleaned, skinned, and handed out to everyone once it was cooked. His lips twitched a little bit at the kindness that she displayed to the people that she'd been helping.

He was reluctant to tear his eyes away from those images. Especially when he knew that the reality of her life was so utterly tragic. But he needed to complete reading what he could about her anyways if he was going to make amends for his screw up.

She'd finished her schooling and even worked her way through medical school, after which she had decided that it was time to finally move on.

She was honorably discharged along with several others from her former unit. All of whom had vehemently refused to work with anyone _but_ her. After which, she had settled herself in Musutafu with the intention of living her life as a civilian doctor.

Leaning back in his seat a little bit, he huffed and then muttered. "That definitely counts as hellish training." No wonder the woman was strong enough to put him on his ass like she had. She'd been forged in fires much more _terrifying_ and _horrible_ than he could possibly imagine.

Still...her record was impressive. Much more impressive than he'd anticipated it would be.

Why the woman was practically a retired Pro Hero! She deserved every highest honor and respect. All of which she had earned by sacrificing her _blood_ , her _bone_ , and her _flesh_.

Hearing the last bell of the day ring, which was quickly followed by kids filling the hallways outside of his office. Straightening his spine a little bit, he then reached out and closed the windows filled with her information and then went ahead and shut off his computer and then grabbed his jacket.

He didn't bother leaving his office via the door. He didn't want to get ambushed by any of the kids right now. So he left through his office window. And the second his feet hit the ground- he was off running at full speed.

* * *

He managed to change into something so that he could remain incognito along the way since he didn't want the woman to know that he was checking up on her. Plus there was the fact that his actions could be very misleading to some and he didn't want to be labeled as a stalker or a creep.

Besides, how would it look to his fans if he were spotted and seen as a stalker? It would be terribly disappointing to them. Right?

So staying hidden for now was the best thing for everyone. Besides, it wasn't as if he was doing anything terrible- _terrible_. He was just trying to check up on someone that he'd hurt.

He totally intended to eventually see her face to face again once he had some sort of plan of action.

He wound up where he usually did when he was checking up on her. On the rooftop of the building across from her home. It was high enough up to allow him a birds eye view of her place without being so intrusive as to allow him to peek through her windows when she was changing.

So technically he could see stuff- like what she was doing in the living room. But _not_ her bedroom or bathroom. Which was...nice really. Especially since it was one thing to check up on her from time to time. And another thing entirely to see her in a vulnerable state of undress like a peeping tom.

He was a lot of things. But he wasn't so pitiful that he'd peep on an innocent woman in that manner. It was just wrong to do so. Dishonorable even.

Not to mention sleazy enough to make his frigging skin crawl. _Ew_.

He could see Miss Kurosaki was sitting on her couch shifting through some papers. Probably something to do with the destruction of the clinic. Or even lawsuits from the families of the ones who'd died?

He hoped that wasn't the case but stranger things _have_ happened before.

She had her mid back length, blue-black hair pulled up in a twist held in place by a hair clip off of her nape. She was also wearing glasses. Wire rimmed, black glasses that were perched precariously low on the bridge of her nose. And she was chewing her lower lip, causing the soft pink color to turn a pretty shade of red from being gnawed on by her little teeth.

He sighed and settled down in his new favorite 'watching' spot and just...stared at her while absently taking note of various details.

There was a stack of opened/unopened bills strewn about her coffee table. A mug of coffee- no, she was stressed- so she had likely forgone the coffee in lieu of tea. Something nice and relaxing to her like chamomile. Lavender, or even chai spice. Or maybe even matcha since she seemed to like that almost as much as the chai spice?

Another thing that he absently noted was that she was wearing a pretty blue sweater and faded jeans. Which meant that she had likely gone out at some point during her day. For groceries maybe?

He'd noticed the day before that her fridge and cabinets were weirdly bare of any necessities. In fact, he'd nearly called a local grocery store and placed an order to be delivered to her home for her. The only things that had actually stopped him was the fact that he didn't know if she had any food allergies or not. Or if she was vegan or not.

Both were something to be wary of.

Still, he had _worried_.

On top of that, he'd also noted that the dark circles underneath her eyes were darkening. Indicating a lack of actual rest that had gone on for days now.

 _How much longer can she keep this up before she finally collapses?_ He wondered fretfully as she set her papers aside and then reached up and slipped her glasses off and took a moment to massage the back of her neck before then getting up off of the couch and grabbing her cup and wandering into the kitchen.

At first he thought that she was going to get a refill. But instead she set her cup down on the counter and then walked to the door.

He noticeably perked up as she slipped out of the door and started walking. He peeked over the edge of the building's rooftop so that he could see where she was going, but he lost her at some point.

So he didn't know why it was so surprising when she turned up behind him as he was straightening up and was about to turn and leave. But it was so startling to him to know that she had managed to sneak up on him- once they were face to face- that he screamed and nearly fell off of the roof in his haste to escape.


	3. Chapter 3

Ichigo had had a crappy few days.

She'd felt eyes on her for days since the video of the 'incident' had been seen on the evening news. And had been bombarded with a number of people randomly coming to her home, and following her while she was out and about.

Sure, she knew some of them were from the local news and TV stations and such. But a majority of them were random strangers hoping to get a shot of her doing something important, or even nefarious, that they could leak to the press for their fifteen minutes of fame.

And in truth, it was more than a little bit annoying.

Especially since those jerks kept trying to provoke her into doing something that she typically wouldn't do.

Why she'd even been _attacked_ a day or so ago by a couple of avid 'hero boy' fans. Though she seriously doubted that anyone really realized it since she'd taken the cell phones of her attacker and his little friend after the attack was over. And destroyed them both before she had walked off.

She might have a wicked set of stitches in her forearm for her troubles, from being swiped at by a dumbass kid with a hero worship complex and a really sharp fucking knife- but she had seen to it that those two morons had been arrested and were currently spending some time in the local jail for their stupidity.

And they also had a permanent mark on their records now.

 _Dumb kids_.

So it really shouldn't have been surprising to her that hero boy showed up. In all honesty she hadn't realized at first who he was until the day _after_ the incident.

She had been shifting through the remains of her clinic while being filmed by some people. It had started to get irritating to be treated as if she were a freak of some kind, so she'd finally turned to face the onlookers filming her and she had finally snapped. "What the hell do you want?"

I mean, honestly...didn't any of these people have something better to do with their day than to harass her?

However despite her annoyance, she heard someone to snap back, "You hit All Might!"

She'd been confused at first. Which had clearly shown in her expression since she had tried to figure out who the hell was mentioned. The name sounded vaguely familiar. But only just so.

Which was when she decided to ask, "All who?"

Which had been a mistake of near epic proportions since the group had all nearly _rioted_ right there. And in the end she'd wound up being chased through the streets by them.

Which had led her to slapping a bunch of people- reporters, TV talk show hosts, some of her neighbors, and even a few strangers _all_ with restraining orders for invading her privacy.

Seeing hero boy teetering precariously on his feet and wind milling his arms in an effort to _not_ fall off of the roof. Made her earlier irritation melt away a bit, as she reached out and grabbed him by the back of his jeans and jerked him towards her so that he wouldn't.

It would be a pain for her to have to treat him if he got his hulking ass injured.

He let out a funny little irk'ing sound, obviously startled to have her hand grab him where it did. After all, her hand was very close to grabbing his ass. But all in all he seemed rather happy to have not fallen to the streets below once he realized that he was safe.

"That would have been a nasty fall." He muttered as he peered over the edge of the roof for a moment before then saying. "Thank you for saving me, miss."

She grunted and then turned and started to walk off, taking note out of the corner of her eye how his massive shoulders sagged a little bit in defeat, and paused so that she could toss over her shoulder. "You coming hero boy?"

He visibly perked up at the question and followed her off of the rooftop and all the way back to her home.

Once there, she almost had to offer him food to get him to enter. He seemed...hesitant to step foot into her place without making absolutely certain that she was okay with him being there. Which was understandable, she supposed.

He'd already spied on her for who knew how long. So asking permission- even if it was a tad bit late- _was_ appreciated. The moment that he stepped through the door, she shut it behind him and then moved around his hulking figure while he took a moment to look around.

If he was any good at his hero work, then he was already mapping possible escape routes.

Just like she tended to do whenever she was in a strange place with people that _she_ didn't know. Of course he didn't make any visible movements or bother to do more than let his eyes flicker around the immediate surroundings to do it. But she still caught his eyes moving as she slipped around him and went to sit down on her couch.

Giving him the option of either following or leaving on his own.

He followed. But it wasn't so much the sounds of his movements that clued her in on what he was doing as much as it was the fact that her couch sank so low that it was a wonder that it didn't _break_ underneath him when he sat down beside her.

"Aren't you going to ask me why I was-" He started to ask her if she was going to ask him about why he was there. But she already knew why. So there was no point.

"Nope. I already have an idea about _why_ you're here." She said as she reached out and picked up her glasses and slipped them back on and then grabbed the papers that she'd been looking over before.

"Oh." He sounded a tad bit disappointed. But quickly seemed to get over it.

"Then you know that I came here to check up on you and see if you were okay?"

"If you knew my name, which you obviously do-" She pinned him with a blank stare for a moment. "Then you could have just as easily called to do that." She said as she scanned the papers again before then tacking on. "You didn't have to make any special trips or go out of your way any." 

She wasn't trying to be a jerk about it. Really she wasn't. She knew that he had likely had to shuffle his usual schedule around just to swing by for any reason.

But calling someone ahead of time was also just common sense.

No toes got stepped on, and _he_ stayed in one piece.

"I-I suppose that your right about that." He said with a slightly nervous sounding chuckle. "B-But after what happened..." She took a deep breath and placed the papers face down next to her and looked at him again. "I felt badly about damaging-"

She quickly corrected him. _"Destroying."_

"Right," He said awkwardly before continuing. "Destroying your clinic. I felt badly that you lost patients as well. And I wanted to apologize but wasn't sure about...whether or not you would appreciate seeing me."

She hummed. "Those are all valid points, hero boy." She said gently. "But I owe you an apology too." He blinked at her, his expression a combination of confused and questioning as she went on to say. "I hit you when I shouldn't have. It must have hurt. So I'm sorry." 

She sounded sorry, which was surprising to him. He could hear her voice was colored with guilt.

He smiled a little bit and absently ran his tongue along his loose molars before replying. "It did. But you were distressed by having been caught in the clinic's collapse and losing several people. So it's understandable."

"It still shouldn't have happened," She said firmly. "I could have _really_ hurt you."

"Think nothing of it, my dear. I'm used to taking hits." He said gently as he reached out hesitantly and patted her on the arm.

He'd meant for it to be a quick and harmless thing. He didn't expect her to yelp and quickly jerk her arm away from his hand as if he'd just hurt her. But then again, he _might_ have.

Especially since he couldn't always tell how much strength he was using during his everyday tasks. It was always something that had bothered him deep down. So naturally he began to fret that he'd actually hurt her without meaning too.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" He almost shouted at her as she looked down at her arm with a frown before muttering.

"Shit. The stitches popped."

He abruptly shut his mouth upon hearing this and began to worry that she might have been hurt the day of the incident and reached out and gently took her arm in one of his large hands. She looked at him curiously as he carefully rolled her shirt sleeve down and let out a hiss when he saw the long, jagged, raw and bleeding cut on her forearm.

"What happened?" He asked as he studied it for a moment.

Noting that it wasn't the kind of injury that she might have gotten when the clinic had collapsed. It was a knife wound. He knew this for certain since he had enough experience under his belt to tell what had made the wound.

Looking at her with intense, stormy blue eyes. He asked her again since she had yet to answer him, "How did this happen?" The wound looked a day- maybe two days old. Which meant that it had to have happened on Tuesday... He had dropped by her place after school, much like today.

So she must have gotten the wound earlier in the day. Perhaps while she had been doing errands?

"You were attacked, weren't you?" He finally asked, anger churning in his gut at the mere thought.

"It doesn't matter." She finally said as she slowly took back her arm and then stood up and left the room to take care of it.

Leaving him sitting there _seething_ as he went over possible motives for someone to attack her. And after about a minute, he narrowed the list down to one suspect.

His more excitable and _avid_ fans.

Clenching his jaw a bit as his anger spiked to new and dizzying heights, he waited patiently for her to return. It would seem that he had much more to apologize for than he initially thought.


	4. Chapter 4

The moment that Ichigo returned to the living room, she paused upon hearing the sound of hero boy messing in her kitchen cabinets for some reason. Moving quietly, she snuck up behind him much like she had up on the rooftop. The only difference this time was he seemed to know that she was there.

"Why are your cabinets so bare?" He groused as he slowly closed the cabinet that he had been riffling through. "There's _nothing_ but tea here. Plus a jug of milk in the fridge. Have you been eating at all?" He asked as he slowly turned to look at her while she looked away to avoid being guilt tripped into answering him.

He huffed quietly since her silence pretty much told him what he wanted to know as he moved around her counter to stand in front of her.

His blue eyes had a weirdly intense look to them that hadn't been there before.

That look was probably because of the injury on her arm. Which meant that he was both a little bit pissed and worried at the same time and had been messing through her cabinets in an effort to hide his anxiety from her.

 _Great, just what I need. Another Chad_. _He's never going to leave me alone, is he?_ She wondered in bemusement as he reached out and gently took possession of her injured arm again to check it over.

"You were gone for a while... Did you have to redo the stitches?"

"Yeah."

"I see." He said as he carefully relinquished her arm with a slightly pained look as he slowly said. "I'm sorry that you got hurt."

"It's fine. It's not like it's your fault."

"Isn't it though?" He asked as she moved around him to make herself and him some tea to hide her own anxiety.

The man was smarter than she'd anticipated if he'd already figured out why she'd been hurt. Then again, maybe he didn't actually know and was just grasping at straws. Or simply being super empathetic.

The makings of a great hero was usually compassion and understanding. Or at least she thought so anyways. Either way, she had been a terrible hostess so far. And she _really_ needed to fix that since she was already rusty enough.

Besides, what would Yuzu think if she could see how she'd neglected to serve him tea or something?

She went over to where she kept her tea and began to pull out a cup for him from the cabinet over her head and went about the task quietly. She was about to add water to the cup when she heard him say, "Lavender is good." And froze up for a second to double check what she was about to make for him since she hadn't really asked him what he wanted to begin with.

 _Damn manners!_ She mentally bemoaned as she already pictured Yuzu yelling at her.

Luckily the tea that she'd began to fix for him was lavender. So she went ahead and finished fixing it before asking.

"Do you want any sweetener?"

"Do you have any?" He inquired, which she supposed was just another way for him to ask her _why_ there was nothing in her cabinets and fridge.

She grabbed a small container that she kept hidden beside her toaster, and glanced back at him to see him watching her like a hawk. His lips twitched. It was subtle, but it was there just the same.

Was it weird that she was so embarrassed to be caught _hiding_ her sugar that she was almost hoping that someone's home would catch on fire so that he'd leave?

Luckily he seemed to catch on to her embarrassment and decided to ask her again. "So...why don't you have any food here, again?"

"I never told you in the first place." She said as she set both the tea and her sugar container on the counter for him. He took a moment to fix his drink how he wanted.

With three sugar cubes, she absently noted and filed away in the back of her mind for later. Just in case he decided to swing by again at a later date. Ya know, like a stray animal.

"I'm aware of that. It's why I asked again."

"I don't have any food for two reasons," She said as he picked up the tea and took a drink. "One, this is a new house. My last two homes got as destroyed as my clinic." He made a choking sound and quickly put his cup down and coughed into his hand a couple of times before finally quieting down for a second.

"Your home was destroyed too?" He asked in an incredulous tone.

"Yup."

_"How?"_

"Oh, uh...the first one got blown up. And the other had part of another house and a few buildings sort of _fall_ on it during some sort of incident."

He didn't really seem to believe her if the fact that he twisted around to scan her living room was any indication at all. However even he couldn't exactly ignore how strangely... _bare_ her home looked aside from the pieces of furniture here and there.

She had no nick knacks, her entertainment center and TV were both in place but there were a couple of boxes pushed/stacked in the corner of the room, where it was a bit difficult to see them. Her shelves were bare of any pictures, DVD's, CD's or books. She had no pots or pans in her lower cabinets in the kitchen. No dishes aside from several cups. No silver...

 _Well hell._ He thought, feeling ever so slightly as if he should grab some of her boxes and start helping her to unpack them. His hands flexed a little bit because of the sudden _itch_ he felt in his palms. The need to do something productive and helpful to her was a strong one in him.

"How long have you lived here?"

"About two- no, three weeks."

"And you haven't unpacked everything yet?"

"I work odd shifts at the clinic and even some at the hospital a few blocks over. So it's a little bit hard to have much spare time between them both."

"Do you want some help unpacking?"

She blinked at him and then said. "No."

"What about some help getting groceries?" He asked as he cast a quick glace towards her barren cabinets before returning his gaze to her. "I can get you everything you could possibly want food-wise. I'll even pay for it." He offered as he gave her a hopeful look.

She shot his offer down with, "No thanks. I can take care of it when I get hungry enough."

He made a scoffing sound and quickly decided to shut himself up for a second by taking another drink of his tea, after which he pointed out sternly. "It's already been days already. You _need_ food."

"I'm not hungry though."

"Well I am since I haven't eaten anything for dinner yet." He said after a moment or so as he cast a calculated look her way. "So maybe I'll call out for some and eat it in front of you."

He smiled a smile that looked sort of like a shark baring it's teeth just before an attack, to her.

"You sound frustrated."

He visibly deflated a little bit and gave her a little bit of a glare. "I am. That's why I think I'll _eat_ in front of you."

"So evil. However will I ever survive the sheer evilness that is you?" She said in a sarcastic tone. He did a wonderful impression of a witches cackle while he pulled out his cell phone and dialed one of his favorite places to get takeout from.

He actually planned to get food from three places, for variety. So that he could see if he could tempt her into eating something. He figured that out of three separate choices, he might be able to con her into doing his bidding and still have enough food left over for her to keep for a day or two.


End file.
